Frugal Living Tips

In nearly every magazine, newspaper and search engine you will find so called tips for saving money. Well, for me every time I read one of those I sigh because I have heard it all before! Those tips usually include advice on how to "feed your family for $25 for a year" or something like that ;)! But honestly how many coupons can one family clip, and how are we supposed to get all those coupons? The Sunday newspaper in our area cost $1.75 and if we find one coupon or several coupons for say .50 they suggest we get multiples of those coupons, but how does one do that without forking out several dollars buying newspapers you are are only buying for the coupons to save maybe $2.00? Talk about a waste of our trees! It seems after reading several of these amazing savings stories that in some areas of the country (not anywhere I have ever lived) there are these fantastic grochery stores that not only double coupons but triple them and also offer about to expire milk and meat at ridiculously low prices. So maybe for the very lucky few of you who live near one of these stores you quite possibly could spend "$25 and feed your family" but for those of us who have maybe two grochery stores within a 20 mile range of our homes the expense would not be worth the effort. So, for me coupon clipping is out. The articles usually go on to say how to save money on you utilities by using your dishwasher during off peak hours, switching to energy efficient light bulbs (have you checked the prices of those?! $8 for a pack of three!!), and turning up the thermostat in the summer and turning it down in the winter. Aside from that they quite often tell you to shop at thrift stores like the Salvation Army. All of those are excellent ideas but we have already been doing those things for several years and we need to save more money! Here are the things we have done and I guarantee you will save money (as long as you are not already doing them of course!).

#1. Stop paying for Cable, Satellite etc. We turned ours off and are now saving over $85 a month! We do have a Net Flix account but the cost is less than $20 and we still watch considerably less TV. Television today is more like a soap box for all the liberal, socialist in the media and in Hollywood anyway! Personally I have no idea how Christians can justify watching TV when 95% of the programming is immoral! My own rule of thumb is to ask myself if I would want Jesus to return when I was watching _____________(fill in the blank)? If I feel any kind of twinge of guilt I don't watch, it is as simple as that. So I may not be up to date on the latest craze on TV but I do have kids who love to read, a husband that talks to me and a clear conscience!

#2. Get some chickens & a milk goat. Yes, it does seem a bit extreme to some, but it is possible for nearly every one who lives in their own home! The chickens are especially easy since you do not need very much space for them and there is no need to ever buy a rooster if all you want from them is eggs. Coops are easy to build and you can find them pre-built for less than $1oo that will fit up to three large breed hens (do a search for backyard poultry or visit www.backyardchickens.com also www.randallburkey.com for premade chicken coops). Chickens are quite easy to take care of and they make excellent pets! As for dairy goats, well we raise Nigerian Dwarf Dairy goats and you can generally find one that is being sold "in Milk" for around $200 depending on the pedigree and milk production history of the doe. The best time to find these is to search in the Spring and the Fall during kidding season. Craigslist is an excellent source and most breeders have websites that you can easily find by doing a search for Nigerians in your area. Websites such as the Nigerian Dwarf Goat Associastion and the American Goat Society also have breeder listings by state. Nigerians are small, eat very little compared to full size goats and give an average of 1 quart of milk per day, plenty for your average family.

Milking them is not that difficult either. I am a born and raised city girl and learned how to milk by reading Storey's guide to Raising Dairy Goats. After about the 2nd week of getting very little accomplished that first doe and I figured it out and now I am sailing through milking three does twice a day. You can find "starter" milking equipment sets on websites from goat supply companies such as Caprine and Hoegger's (www.caprinesupply.com www.hoeggergoatsupply.com), both have virtually all you would need to get started with goats. A doe can be "in milk" for quite a long time and you would not need to re-breed until she is going dry which for some goats can be as long as 24 months from the time of their kidding.

We currently have 5 does on 1 acre of pasture, however we do practice rotational grazing by using electric netting from Premier1 fence company. Our total acerage is 5 acres and by rotational grazing we use about 3 of that during the year, rotating every few months to a new pasture. We also keep a buck in his own permanent pasture. In a typical backyard you would have to supplement with hay but even that is not too expensive with only one or two goats. Grain is quite inexpensive, actually cheaper than your average dog or cat food as we pay $8.50 at our local co-op for a 50lb bag which with three does in milk lasts us about 3 weeks but we do add things such as black oil sunflower seeds and flax seeds so it is extended to about 53lbs with our various top dressings. Regardless keeping a goat is something worth looking into if you would like save money and at the same time become more self sufficient.

#3. Clean Naturally. Stop buying all those chemical cleaners! You can easily clean your entire home with Vinegar, lemon juice and baking soda! All natural and all very inexpensive! Mix 1/2 water 1/2 vinegar and use it to clean everything from your bathroom sink to your windows and tile! It also cleans stainless steel! Baking soda works wonders when combined with water and a good green scrubby pad to clean your tub and tile and when mixed with a little lemon juice it removes stains from tea cups and coffee mugs! I also can recommend a great book titled Better Basics for the home by Annie Berthold-Bond for many more great recipes and advice on natural cleaning and general less toxic living.

#4. Make your own Laundry Soap. It is easier than you think and will save you a lot of money in just a few months. The supplies are pretty easy to find and all you need is, Borax, Washing Soda, and a good bar soap such as Felz Naptha or Octagon (by Dial corp).

Take 4 quarts of water and place in a pot designated for soap making only, set on medium.
All 1/2 cup borax & 1/2 cup washing soda, mix until disolved.

Shred 1/2 bar soap and add to water mixture, stir over medium heat until dissolved. Once the soap has dissolved remove from heat and pour into a 3-5 gallon container. I use an old 5 gallon bucket from Home depot. Let this sit for 1 hour then add enough hot water to fill the container to 3 gallons. Mix and either pour into old liquid soap containers or leave it in the bucket and scoop out 1/2 cup of the mixture for each wash load. It will get more solid as it sits but you can easily either shake the containers or mix in the bucket with a spoon to liquify it again.

#5 Grow your own! In the afore mentioned articles they generally do mention one thing that I will also include and that is to grow your own garden. However, I will go a little further and advise to grow a lot! To actually save a considerable sum at the grochery store you will need a rather large garden. Ours is over 2000 sq ft and we still need more space to grow enough so that we can not only feed our family during the growing season but have enough to put up for the winter. One tomato plant may save you a few dollars but a row of tomato plants can save you possibly a hundred dollars or more! By planting succesional plantings of green beans you can also save even more since the price of can goods is soaring! We plant every ten days but so far we have managed to eat all of our crops, we have harvested from a total of 16 plants so far and have eaten green beans twice or three times per week since the start of June. Hopefully when our runner beans take off they will produce enough to allow us to can some of them for the winter. But so far from an expense of three dollars and a little of our time we have saved nearly $20 just by not have to buy 4 cans of green beans per week, and ours are organically grown so if comparing apples to apples the savings nearly double! So, if living in the suburbs or if you just have a small yard I would offer that you make the whole area into a garden! You will save not only at the grochery but you will no longer have to mow the yard! Of course you will need to leave some room for the chicken coop and the goats :)!

Thats about it for today! It is time for school work! Which reminds me of one more thing famalies can do to save money!

#6 Homeschool your kids! Stay home and teach them yourself! The expense of having two incomes is not talked about too much in modern society but if you do a little math you can figure it out on your own pretty quickly. Think about how much you spend on vehicles (we downsized to only one), insurance, meals, wardrobe (not to mention clothes for the kids), shoes, cosmetics (the kids don't care!), office donations, day care etc. The cost for me to keep my job was going to be substantial compared to staying at home where I really wanted and needed to be anyway. We spend an average of $300 a year for curriculum and supplies for our three children and we save more than that by not having to buy them the latest in fashion! We also have two of our three chidren that have processing issues and homeschooling has allowed us to teach them in a fashion that best fits them and they have thrived under our instruction.

Here's to hoping this helps someone! Blessings & Take care!

It's Twins!

A little over two weeks ago we were again blessed with more kids. This time I was prepared and had recognized that our older doe Darcia was in labor while I was doing the morning chores.

I noticed a discharge about 6 AM on Sunday 3/29. I watched her very closely while doing the rest of my chores and while preparing breakfast but she seemed to just be acting normal, grazing and allowing our first kid Blessing to "goat surf" on her back. So we continued our day and finished breakfast about 9 AM.

I checked on her again and still did not notice any contractions or odd behavior. However not more than an hour later the kids once again told me that Darcia was giving birth in the pen! This time I had everything ready and was already scrubbed so I ran out the door and into the field.

Joucing Joppa aka JoJo arrived first and was as cute as a bug! She was again another doeling and I felt such joy that the Lord again blessed us with another doe! Scott, who is not known for being an opptimist made me check several times before he finally realized that yes indeed God had given us another doeling!

I cleaned her up, administered Nutri drench to both JoJo and Darcia and put on the cord clamp. Things were much smoother this time and Scott was even home to watch! Lilli my seven year old was such a good helper and brought everything I asked her for to me very quickly. We used old feed sacks to cover the pen floor and we needed way more than I thought and the paper towels went very quickly as well.

After a while Darcia began to lay down again and let us know that she was not done! Pretty soon thereafter I saw another snout this time with the teeth showing like a silly smile. Everthing appeared to be fine so I just stayed back and let Darcia do her job. A few minutes later Jumping Jebediah aka Jeb was born. Obviously this little guy was a buckling and quite a bit larger than his big sister. They both began standing and nursing a little slower than Blessing but within about 10 minutes they were both nursing well. Again things went very swiftly and without complication execpt for my running out of paper towels. Next time I will lay in a huge Costco sized supply before kidding season!

As for the clean up well, thanks to the feed sacks and paper towels all I really needed to do was add everything to a trash bag. I did have to fight Darcia for the after birth but I won and got to throw it away. At that point I was also feeling very thankful that I was a human being and did not have to clean up after my own births! Darcia did not seem to mine however so I will assume that God also blessed the animals with an amazing instinct to do what needs to be done no matter how nasty it is!

So in the end once again the Lord was so good to us again! Out of three kids born two of them are doelings and will remain on our farm. Unfortunatly since Jeb is related to two of our does he will have to become a herd sire at another very fortunate farm. He is a glorious boy with beautiful conformation like his sire and a very very sweet disposition. I know that Lilli especially will find it hard to let him go because he follows her around like a puppy and loves for her to hold him. JoJo will also be sad to see him go as they never seem to be apart from each other but in no time at all he will begin to think only about breeding and would not be able to be with her anyway. We pray the good Lord blesses us again and allows us to purchase a new buckling from great milk lines so that we will be able to continue improving our herd. I know that whomever is blessed with Jeb will improve be getting not only a handsome fellow but his dam is milking like a dream and had the best udder I have seen.

We will continue to be thankful every day for our blessings and pray that they will multiply as well! However we are content with what we have already been given and if we are not able to find a buckling then we know that there is a reason and we will wait.

Unexpected Blessing

Well it has been a while so I will update my blog with what has been going on since February. I can not possibly tell about everything but I will hit the highlights.

First it turned out that our yearling doe Scarlett was indeed bred. I had written her breeding date correctly in my journal and then crossed it out and written another date, I still have no idea why I did that. So I was a month ahead of schedule but Scarlett was not and she gave birth right on time!

Our first kid was a total suprise obviously and thankfully she kidded in the middle of the afteroon. At the time I was actually "locked" out of the house because there was a wasp inside of which I am terribly afraid of! Since it was about 3 PM and my husband was to be home around 3:45 I decided to sit outside and wait. Well, not too long after I sat down and was talking to a friend on the phone my daughters ran and told me something was wrong with Scarlett. They looked over and they said she had a "bubble" coming out of her backside. I looked over myself, quickly got off the phone and ran inside for my birthing kit. I never saw the wasp but in my hurry I had forgotten about it anyway so it could have been on my shoulder and I would not have paid any attention.

So, by the time I grabbed my kit, scrubbed up and gathered some clean towels the birth was over! It was less than 10 minutes from the time the girls saw the "bubble" and my getting to the field but none the less I missed it. All I was able to do was clean the baby up and administer some nutri drench and put on the cord clamp. Later after the kid began to nurse I also gave her some probios. Scarlett only gave us one kid but she was huge for a Nigerian and beautiful!

The girls said she was a blessing so that became her name. We are retaining her of course because she will always have the honor of being our very first kid and thankfully she was a doeling! It was totally unexpeted and so easy! I was not prepared to not have any complications but it was so glorious to be so pleasantly suprised! The Lord blessed us for sure. I think I was riding a wave of joy for days afterwards. God is so good to bless us with animals, they make every day a new experience, sometimes a joy and sometimes a sorrow but always different and never boring!

Soap box

I just discovered this bit of info and I believe this is further proof what a circus Washington DC has become. Our politicians are celebrities with more greed and hunger for power than sense.
A return to the roots of Democracy is more evident every day!

When Thomas Jefferson was sworn in as President, he returned to his boarding house for dinner. Every seat was taken, and noone stood to offer him a seat. After a while the wife of a Kentucky senator offered him her seat. Jefferson politely declined.
In his own words he had this hope for the future of our nation: " I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be."

How do you think he would have responded to the outlandish displays our tax payer monies go to putting on now? We have become not only a nation bent on misusing it's power but a nation of selfish greed. The "have's" think they have the power (ie. money) to tell all of the "have not's" how they are to live their lives. In order for our country to thrive there must be freedom to choose for ourselves. Diversity builds success, government control builds nothing but more government. People wake up and stop voting for politicians who make promises to give you more, work for it and make it yourself!

I am aware however that there are many people in our country who indeed do need help. My own mother recently recieved a liver transplant and is now unable to work in the highly stressful venue that she did before her illness. If it were not for my father she would be soley dependant on government disablility and social security. In cases such as this we do need help from others. Help like this should not be provided by the government but by people who choose to provide this help. This is where the church community should be playing a much larger part. In order to accomplish this churches would of course need to set a larger amount of the tithing to this purpose. In my experience this is not happening because the church is doing it's part to be more of a part of the problem. Churches all over this country are becoming too worldly, trying to fit into the image of the world today instead of setting themselves apart as it should be. That is a topic for later however.

Stepping of the soap box now.

"It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope-the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ..." Titus 2:12-13

"The federal government has sponsered research that has produced a tomato that is perfect in every respect, except that you can't eat it. We should make every effort to make sure this disease, often reffered to as "progress" doesn't spread." Andy Rooney

"God helps those that help themselves" Benjamin Franklin

Inaguration Circus Cost!

Over the course of the past few years I have steadily grown more concerned with the future world my children will have to live in. Since November that concern has grown to an almost suffocating fear. My prayers at night focus on giving all of this worry to God and trusting that he has a plan and as long as I guide my children in his word they will be protected in his hands. However, I am also aware that Jesus did not just turn the other way when he witnessed the desicration of his fathers holy temple (Matt 21:12) therefore, I will make my voice known as well with the injustice of this world and more specifically this week in the USA. I may not be able to turn over tables and run the robbers out but I can raise my voice!

Four years ago during a time of war when funds should have been directed into means of keeping our men and women safe 40 million dollars was spent on President Bush's inaguration. The media was in an uproar stating that the money could have been spend on vaccinations for third world countries or for humvee's for our soldiers. Certainly I agree that we should not be spending any more money on media circus' and pomp and circumstance for anyone! Why is this absurb amount of cash being wasted on a less than 2 minute swearing in ceremony? Why? Because even though we fought against the British throne we are returning from wence we came!

Now, the 2009 inaguration is set to cost $160 million dollars and the only place on the interenet I could discover this information was from a British news source! The BRITISH are astounded at the cost our tax payers are forking over and they maintain royalty who are suppossed to be excessive!

Why do we not have simple swearing in ceremonies behind closed doors in kind to the Presidential Address, televised for the country. We are talking a savings of tens of millions here. Yes, there would be no huge inaguration balls but if those funds were never spent our national debt would not be SO FAR IN THE RED! McCain wanted to speak so much about pork barrell spending but is saying nothing about this media/celebrity circus taking place in his backyard every four years that costs our country millions of dollars.

How many homeless children right here in this country could have benefited from those funds, donated or otherwise? How many of them could have been given homes and food to eat for nearly the rest of their lives? How much fuel could have been donated to those who are unemployed and can not afford the gas to look for another! The choices are as immense as the bills for these needless ceremonies.

That said I am going to teach my children how to be productive members who can help to change this messed up world! May we someday return to the days of George Washington's inaguration!

Chicken Tips

I would like to share with you the mistakes I have made in the past two years of raising chickens and my tips that might just save you some of the grief we have taken upon our selves.

1. Books will tell you that if you wish to have tame your chicks that you should handle them and get them to eat our of your hands. Well, the handling is a great idea because it allows the chick to become comfortable with your picking it up as you may need to do if there is ever an issue you need to address. It is also a good idea to become aquainted with the chicks body condition as it progresses in it's growth. However I do NOT recommend feeding them by hand unless you are going to be showing them. We wanted our chicks to love us so be did as the books said and now we have full grown chickens who believe that our chubby little hands are a source of food. I can tell you that a peck from a hungry hen is not going to make you love your chicken.

2. Do your best not to buy chickens at a time when they will be old enough to lay in the middle of winter. We purchased our day old chicks at the end of June thinking we would have eggs by Thanksgiving and to this date we have none. The chickens needs 14 hours of light to lay an egg and even here in the south we do not have that much daylight. We started turning on a light in our coop from 6am-9pm a week ago and I will keep you updated on how that works out for us but it is quite possible we may not get any eggs until spring since we did not start this practice months ago. Live and learn.

3. If you really want your chickens to love you give them warm oatmeal when it is cold outside. It is also an added source of protein which is also nearly necessary during the winter if you wish to increase your winter egg production. Of course protein does not have to be in the form of warm oatmeal but it is pretty inexpensive and they love it a lot! Adding cayenne pepper is also well promoted as a sure fire way to get your flock to lay well, however I recommend growing your own cayenne peppers and then drying/grinding them yourself as then you can be sure of what is going in your chickens. Of course you could purchase organic cayenne but that would be quite costly as it is recommed to add an entire bottle to a bag of feed. Hot Peppers are one of the easiest plants to grow organically as they have few pests and drying them is easy as well. Cayenne is known to have stimulant, blood pressure-regulating, digestive and anti-flatulent properties so keeping it on hand for home use is an added bonus. The stimulant properties are probably the reason it works so well in helping hens to lay!

To dry hot peppers simply remove them from the plant once they have ripened sufficiently. We grew cayenne last year and harvested several pounds from one plant, as they turned red we would remove them and lay them to dry on an unused dresser top. In the summer it did not take very long at all for the peppers to dry but later in the fall it did take quite a while. Once the peppers are dry (they will be quite shrivled) you should be able to hear the seeds inside rattling around. From that point store the dried peppers in a tupperware container or in a ziploc bag. Once you have quite a handful you can begin to process. I simply place mine in the food processor but if you only want to grind a few you can use a coffee grinder (used only for spices/herbs). We have accquired quite a collection of glass jars so we have one labled for cayenne and simply add to it as needed. Keeping your spices in a cool dark cabinet will allow them to store for a longer period.

That is about it for now. I hope these tips help someone!

Is she even bred?

In October our farm added a new herd of Registered Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats. Our herd is quite small with only two does and one buck but as we purchased one of the does bred we knew it would be getting larger quite quickly.

The bred doe is Scarlett and she was bred to a beautiful triple registered buck owned by the breeder we purchased her from. We are quite excited about this paring as Scarlett is a beautifully conformed doe and the buck is a polled darling with a wonderful lineage. However, Scarlett is not "filling out" as we expected a bred doe to do. She is due in less than a week and we are wondering if indeed she was bred. Hopefully she is bred and possibly just carrying one kid, although one kid usually means a difficult birth as they are generally much larger. Being as Scarlett is a first time mother does not increase the chances of the birth going any smoother either. Thankfully we have contacted an experience vet in case I can not help her. To say that I am scared to death of the impending birth is an understatement. I am scared spit less! As a mother of three you would imagine that assisting in the birth of any kind would not worry me as I have accomplished the feat myself, however you would be wrong. I may have birthed my own babies but from what I have read goats can have some very trying births especially the first time. As a child I had dreamed of being a vet and followed that dream until I elected to become a stay at home mom my sophomore year in college so I am hoping all of my knowledge with animal care will help out in a real life situation.

For the last few days I have noticed that Scarletts udder is filling out so we are now pretty confident she is bred but as she is still so small the chances of a single birth also seem pretty for sure as well. I will of course hand this worry over to the good Lord who will take care of the worrying for me. As long as I leave things in his capable hands I am sure things will progress as they are meant to. Time to feed the two legged kids around here so more later.....